Students plan for summer
By Sarah Hersh

  With summer approaching quickly, many students are looking towards the sun. Summer provides many opportunities—chances to relax, travel, and gain work experience. Summer is also notorious for beach excursions, tanning, and hot temperatures.
  Junior Sara Robinson plans to spend eight weeks this summer as a CIT at Camp Interlaken. Her responsibilities include helping with activities and living with campers for four of the weeks.
  “I want to go back to camp after it has given me so much in the past seven years,” Robinson said. “I’m excited to gain leadership experience and have a really fun summer.”
  Some students are planning to find jobs close to home so they can enjoy time off with their friends. Junior Danka Milić said, “I’m thinking about finding a summer job. Also, I’ll most likely be doing some volunteer work. When I’m free, I’ll be at the beach with friends.”
  Milić, as well as most of the student population, hopes her summer job will give her an edge in the future.
  “I really want to gain some more work experience so that I could get a better job while in college. By volunteering I can work with friends and give back to the community.”
  Junior Margaret Smith is also spending her summer in the area, although she is doing a little bit of traveling.
  “This summer I am working at a kids’ musical theater camp and doing some college visits.” Smith said, “I enjoy this experience because I get more work experience and the chance to combine my interests with a way to earn some money.”
  “Summer is a good opportunity for those who aren’t in summer school to get some much needed rest and pursue interests that might have gotten put on hold during the school year” Smith said.
  Unfortunately, some students are forced to spend their summer indoors, participating in summer school. Junior Nora Graller is planning to take U.S. history.
  “I didn’t take it this year because I was able to lighten my load for my junior year. I’ve already taken summer school once and it really wasn’t that bad. It’s easier for me to focus on one class. Also, I have a couple of friends who are taking the same class so hopefully I’ll be in a class with them,” she said.
  “I’m also going to a camp for a week in L.A. to study film production where we make one film and crew two or three other films. I think this allows me to have a good balance of education with relaxation. It will be busy, but in a good way. Last summer I did absolutely nothing and was bored most of the time.”
  “Even though I’ll be taking school over the summer so it’s almost as though I don’t get a break, its still summer [and] I get to take something I’m interested in. In addition, school gets out at noon so I have the rest of the day to participate in other activities that I’m interested in pursuing,” Graller said.
  Junior Melissa Miller is excited about her first summer without summer school. She took biology and physics over the summer the last two years. This summer, she will be working at Camp Echo for seven weeks and as a French exchange student staying with her for the month of July.
  “I stayed with her last year for a month and she’s coming this year to America,” Miller said. “Marie is a really fun girl and I want to show her around and take her to fun activities such as going to concerts, eating lots of junk food, hanging out at the beach, and introducing her to all my friends. Another thing that’s cool is that I get to drive her around a ton. In France, you have to be 18 years old to drive, so she thinks it’s weird that I already can.”
  Summer is a very important part of the year for students. Besides the obvious perk of not being in school, students can practically do anything they want. Milić said that the two most important parts of summer for New Trier students are “the beginning and very end. During the beginning New Trier students experience their much anticipated break and thus they try to do a lot of the activities they were too busy to do during the year, while during the end, the students have to start preparing for school which drains a lot more energy than one would think.”
  One thing is for sure, summer is a highly anticipated season. Miller said, “Just knowing that summer break is fast approaching is the only thing that keeps me working so hard through the rest of junior year. This year, if I had no break, I think I might just give up.”